IHRA: Summit Tournament of Champions, Summit SuperSeries a smash hit

Hundreds of Sportsman racers – and Sportswomen, more about how important that is in a moment – converged on Memphis International Raceway this weekend for the IHRA Summit Tournament of Champions and Summit SuperSeries season-ender.

With perfect weather for the competitors and teams that represented 27 states – including Alaska – and four Canadian provinces, track conditions were superb, leaving winning and losing ultimately in the hands of the drivers.

Everyone who raced in the World Finals earned a spot on the roster, by performing at their home IHRA tracks at a level that earned them an invitation. There were multiple, major prizes awarded, but the two most coveted were two packages, one for the Top Class Champion and one for the Junior Dragster Champion.

For the Top Class champ, that package included a brand-new, custom-built American Race Cars dragster with a TrickFlow 572-cubic-inch big-block engine and a custom paint job from Imagine That Customs. In addition, the winner got $10,000 from Summit Racing, a week in Aruba for two from AroundAruba.com, plus an IHRA Gold Card, Ironman trophy, and world champion diamond ring.

And the winner was: Mickey Nelson of Leonardtown, Md., who defeated Tony LaFever of Cookville, Tenn. in the final. Nelson, the number two qualifier, ran a 4.838 at 141.91 mph in the eighth-mile to take the victory.

His current car, a 2005 Race Tech, is similar in layout to the new American Race Cars dragster, so getting used to it won't be a problem. With two racecars, what's he going to do next year? "Put gas in 'em and race the heck out of them!" Nelson said, laughing.

The prize package for the Summit SuperSeries Junior Dragster winner was a new racer from JR Race Cars, and a custom paint job from Imagine That Customs. The package also includes $3,000 from Summit Racing, an IHRA Gold Card, an Ironman trophy and a world champion diamond ring.

And that went to one of the female drivers, who beat another female driver in the finals. Allison Lloyd of Doswell, Va. had a slightly better reaction time than Emily Million of Castlewood, Va. It was an all-girl final, and both had near-perfect runs. Allison, 17, has one more year of eligibility in the Junior Dragster series, and she has every intention of sticking with IHRA drag racing after that. The ultimate goal: "I'd love to make it to Pro Stock."

In the next week we'll tell you about the rest of the winners, including Victor Ellinger of Cleveland, Ohio, who beat out 74 other racers to win the Summit SuperSeries Mod class – driving a 1980 Volvo Bertone.